HOW TO: Use Styles
“Styles” control the visual aspect of your text: font type, size, and color as well as spacing between
paragraphs among other aspects. Word uses “Normal” as a default style. You can change the
appearance of “Normal” on individual pieces of selected text, however it is more useful to define your
text in styles
Using the Styles Group on the Home Tab
First, turn on the ¶ symbol in the Paragraph Group on the Home Tab in the document ribbon at the top
of the Word window. This allows you to see the formatting instructions that Word is using in the
document. These symbols and dots will not print.
The “Styles Group” on the Home Tab will show a selection of six, pre-defined MSWord styles. This is
the Quick Style Gallery. Many of the pre-defined defaults are not suitable for use in your thesis or
dissertation. You may, however re-define the defaults with more appropriate font and color settings by
modifying the basic styles.
To see styles window
If you want to select other pre-defined styles, click on the square and arrow button in the bottom, righthand corner of the Styles group. This will open a “Styles” window at the right-hand of the screen. To
make sure that all possible pre-defined styles are showing, select “Options” at the bottom of the screen
and for “Select styles to show” in the “Style Pane Options” dialog box choose “All styles”.
Modify a Style
If you want to adjust a predefined style, right-click
on that style either in the Quick Style Gallery in
the Styles group or in the comprehensive list in
the Styles window. Select “Modify”.
This opens a “Modify Style” dialog box where
you can adjust font, spacing, alignment, tabs, size
etc. Making adjustments changes the definition of
the style. Every time you use that style, it will
look the way you’ve defined it to look.
Typically you will use the “Format” button to
select font, paragraph, tabs and numbering
options.
Right-clicking on the style also gives you the
option to add it to the Quick Style Gallery in the
Styles Group
New Style
GRADUATE SCHOOL
TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY
Styling a Document
Ideally, all text in your document should be styled. A fully styled document is easier to update if you
need to change formatting. A fully styled document also makes it possible to use Microsoft’s automated
features for creating tables of contents, and lists of tables and figures. Typical, standard styles for a
thesis or dissertion would include:
•
Body Text – defining your paragraph text style
•
Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3 etc. – defining your heading and subheading styles.
Please use black fonts and standard font styles (like Times New Roman) rather than
MSWord’s default shades of blue and Calibri font. It is usually best to vary fonts in terms
of both size and style by level (i.e. H1= Times, 16pt, bold, H2= Arial, 14pt, bold)
•
Index – defining your bibliographic listing style
•
Numbered and bullet list styles – defining numbered and bulleted lists
•
Block Quote style – defining offset quotations
•
Footnote style – defining footnote styles
•
Header/Footer styles – defining the styles for the text in your headers and footers
Some styles you may want to create for your thesis/dissertation include:
•
Title Style – to define Heading 1-type text that you don’t want selected by MS Word’s
automated Table of Contents function (see “How To: Generate Tables of Contents”)
•
Figure Title and Table Title Styles – styles that you can use for titling tables and figures.
These styles can then be selected for using MS Word’s automated functions (see “How
To: Create Automated Table of Contents”).
Create a Style
Go to the “Styles” Group on the ribbon and click the box and arrow icon in the lower right-hand corner
of the group to open the “Styles” window (see previous page).
When you click the “New Style” icon
from the bottom of the “Styles” window,
you get the “Create New Style from
Formatting” dialog box.
If we were to create a style that is identical
to Heading 1 (here Heading 1 has been
redefined to be black rather than blue and
have a Times font) but separate from it, we
would define the new style as follows:
Name: ChapterTitleStyle
Style type: Paragraph
Style based on: Heading 1
Style for following paragraph: Body Text
Then click “Ok”
For each new style you create, make sure that you give it a unique name. When you are using the
automated Table of Contents function, it will become clear why it is helpful to create a separate
ChapterTitleStyle, TableStyle, and FigureStyle. See “How To: Create Automated Table of Contents”
for more information.
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Revised 8-22-08